Chapman, who played a character of the same name on the NBC sitcom, died on Friday.
WASHINGTON — Actor Grizz Chapman, best known for playing a character of the same name on “30 Rock,” has died at age 52.
He died on Friday, according to fellow “30 Rock” actor Kevin Brown. “I regret to inform you that Mack Chapman aka Grizz Chapman passed today,” Brown wrote on Facebook. “May he RIP.”
Harlem Globetrotter Donte “Hammer” Harrison wrote on Instagram that Chapman had been fighting illness for years and passed peacefully in his sleep. “We knew the man behind the screen,” said Harrison, who wrote that Chapman was his cousin. “A good heart, good energy, and somebody who made an impact in this life.”
TMZ was the first to report Chapman’s death, citing his longtime rep Saideh A. Brown, who told TMZ that Chapman’s wife and children are devastated.
Chapman appeared in 80 episodes of “30 Rock,” according to IMDB. He also had roles in other TV shows including “The Good Fight,” “Common Sense Police” and “The Blacklist,” and the movies “Money Monster” and “The Cobbler.”
He was born April 16, 1974, in Brooklyn, New York. He worked as a bouncer at a strip club when he met Tracy Morgan, who cast him and Kevin Brown as his “30 Rock” character Tracy Jordan’s two confidants Grizz and Dot Com, according to Deadline.
His cause of death was not released. According to the National Kidney Foundation, Chapman had struggled with kidney disease and spent a year undergoing dialysis treatments several times a week while filming “30 Rock” before he received a kidney donation in 2010.